The enigma of Chinese business: understanding corporate performance through managerial ties

Abstract

Despite the fanfare surrounding China’s rise, economic performance and seemingly inexorable growth, some global data on areas such as labour productivity and digital competitiveness show a different picture. This collection, therefore, gives a multilevel reality check for the Chinese economy, firm performance and managerial ties. We do this by raising two broad questions. First, can China restructure its economy from a low-cost growth model to a high value-added innovative model without incurring major structural inertia? Second, can Chinese firms out-perform competitors in global high value markets without relying on state initiatives, central funding mechanisms and public R&D institutions? We find that an innovative side of Chinese performance includes big data analysis, supply chain integration, high-performance work systems and customer involvement as stakeholders. However, these new dimensions of corporate performance boosters do not necessarily produce innovative future forecasts for China, as performance improvements have so far been neither drastic nor futuristic.